


People Watching and Other Subjects

by Kasimere, Multiduel



Category: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Gen, Mage Hawke - Freeform, Mentions of DA2, Mentions of DA: Asunder, Mentions of depressing trauma but nothing is being explicitly said, People Watching, Slice of Life, Two people with a mutual friend have a chat, a weird amount of conversation regarding dogs, character study of sorts, slight Anti-Anders themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:54:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28036512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kasimere/pseuds/Kasimere, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multiduel/pseuds/Multiduel
Summary: He played around with the moment, reaching out to probe at the emotions coming from Hawke. Exhaustion, mixed with a relative sense of calm. Cole poked at this feeling. It was soft. Mailable. Warm and pleasant, but lined with a cool slither of something harder.
Kudos: 5





	People Watching and Other Subjects

**Author's Note:**

> so, this was something me and my lovely friend Multiduel wrote back in October, reread it this morning during a hangover and thought. hang on, this is pretty sick. maybe someone out there will like it too. i wrote marian and she wrote cole, so ya'll should go let her know how great she is at writing a character I'd have to commit a blood sacrifice to write properly. what a mad lad.

Marian looked down to the crowds below, faces going about their lives like the world’s end hadn’t been put on hold again. Although, she supposed, people were probably used to the impending doom enough by now to not be giving it a second thought. Maybe she should do the same. 

She’d returned Kirkwall to coincide with Varric’s return, privy to the city’s plans to appoint him Viscount. She’d laughed, at first, but then Aveline pulled that oh so serious face — that hadn’t lost any of its sternness even after all these years...

Well, shit. Kirkwall’s favourite son indeed. 

Speaking of the dwarf, he was busy, up at the keep with said Captain of the Guard. Business about the city, business Hawke herself had absolutely no interest in. Instead she waited at the Hendyr household, well, their second household. The barracks still seemed to be their true home. Still, this house was nice, a comfortable cross between her own old home in Lothering and the mansion she scarcely visited these days. The balcony was spacious, granted he knew Aveline probably only used it to spy on the streets below, Donnic had at least tried to adorn it with comforts like a small table topped with flowers. Bless him. He was good for Aveline, and though she’d never admit it- seemed better than her first husband. Hawke may’ve only known him for an hour but he had seemed like a right bastard anyhow. 

Donnic himself was also absent from the home, on duty somewhere in Lowtown, still doing the dirty work nepotism be damned. Which left Hawke with their only other houseguest. Cole. He didn’t live with them, of course, three is a crowd. Especially when one of those three is some weird amalgamation of Fade creature and strange young man. Like Sandal but with more frowning. Maker, she tried to avoid the lad the best she could, which was hard since he seemed to have been unofficially adopted by her best friend. 

She used to avoid him because she was afraid, simple as. With good reason, the past decade had left her with a huge distrust for anything Fade borne or related to. The weird feral nature of something that clearly wasn’t human smushed together with a ‘confused puppy’ had chilled her to the core. It brought the taste of ash to her lips and rotted flesh to her nostrils. Sickly sweet smells of dreams that turned her friends against her. 

But that was then, now was now. Now she avoided him because when she looked at the strange creature following after Varric and who nodded at Aveline’s every word since the moment he stepped off the boat. The more she felt the niggling suspicion she may have been wrong about him. Afterall he had helped save the world, he’d given Varric something to focus on, and he hadn’t as of yet become a snarling abomination. There was still time she supposed, maybe years on the run had chipped away at whatever trust she had left. Maybe she just couldn’t trust spirits. Was he even a spirit anymore? Ugh, no, what if this was all mind tricks, it had happened before. 

Or maybe she was just being a colossal prick about the whole thing. Or maybe she was just making sure she was ready to be there for Varric for when-

The air behind her dropped in temperature, and immediately she stood from her seat staff in hand as she whipped around to see;

Cole. 

*  
Cole had been pacing around the empty rooms of the house, greeting each one as he did so. Places were happier when they were appreciated. He’d known when Hawke had arrived, he’d watched her come in. Sat silently on the banister at the top of the staircase, observing her as she’d entered the hallway. She’d stopped to call out if anyone was home. Cole had said nothing, just watched. She'd gone into the kitchen for a moment before returning to the hallway and beginning to climb the staircase. Hawke paused when she had seen him still sitting on the bannister. They’d eyed each other for a moment before she’d continued, walking past him and out onto the balcony. 

She’d kept her staff. She always kept her staff. Cole found this interesting, but unsurprising. He’d stood up, and blinked himself off the bannister and into the study. He liked this room. It was cosy and decorated with warm colours. Soft pillows adorned a small two seat sofa tucked by a bookshelf. Cole knew the titles of every book on the shelves. He’d never read them. Never wanted to. But he liked to sit and listen when Donnic or Aveline would read. They both read aloud to him if they knew he was there, not that either would be willing to admit it to the other. Varric used to read to him, but more recently he’d been busy, so Cole had found himself spending more time here. 

Aveline didn’t seem to mind his company. Only very occasionally chasing him out with a glare if he started asking too many questions on what she was thinking or when she and Donnic wanted time alone. 

A spider ran across one of the shelves, skipping it’s little eight legged dance in between the tomes. Cole greeted it, putting out one hand for it to crawl onto. It continued its jig along his fingers, seemingly pleased with it’s new audience. The spirit watched it for a moment longer before reaching up and placing it onto his hat.

Cole found himself missing Skyhold. The feelings were familiar. Safer. Kirkwall was fragmented and coarse as were the thoughts of its inhabitants. Suppressed despair and resentment still lingered years on. Cole didn’t like going near the chantry. The rubbled from the explosion had been cleared as had all but a few remnants of red lyrium, but they couldn’t clear what kept Cole away. The fear had been so strong that it had seeped into the surrounding stone. Pain and anguish so powerful, it burned the spirits mind, made it impossible for him to think straight. He could feel the pull of feelings from both the living and dead, begging for some kind of peace he couldn’t offer them. So he kept away. 

Blinking back to the banister, Cole shook the thoughts of the chantry from his mind. Varric had tried to teach him tricks to focus his mind. To push out unwanted fears and feelings. He tried to pick a thought and focus on it. A single knot to untangle rather than many at once. There was one that he recognised. Conflicting. Crashing. Contrary. Like a switch being flipped back and forth between trust and doubt. Faith and skepticism. A routine battle. One he wanted to help with. 

He paid no mind to the staff pointed at his face. He sensed no real danger from her. No anger that was directed explicitly at him. Not anymore. He cocked his head to one side, observing for a moment expectantly as if she’d asked him a question. 

*

“Someone really ought to attach a bell to you.” She smirked, dropping her staff to her side in one fluid motion. Eyeing the oddball up the down she noted that he looked less like a drowned rat than he had done during the times of the Inquisition. Other than that he seemed very much unchanged. Still pale, still skinny, still looking like he hadn’t quite recovered from some nondescript illness. Perhaps a tad less ghostly and sleep deprived when at a certain angle- did he even sleep? The majority of the improvements came from his clean, far less tatty clothes, and the fact he simply looked washed. Maker, the years away from Lothering had her sounding like her mother more by the day. Who was she to judge, the kohl in the creases of her eyes had been there for days. 

“Admittedly I’m surprised you're here, you’re usually Varric’s shadow after all.” She turned away from him to look down again at the crowds below, not yet returning to her seat. 

“And you’re not down there either, providing random passers by with surprise therapy. Gotten tired of it, have we?” She huffed. 

This place left her with such a sense of yearning. Here she stood in Aveline’s home, without her, without the others. The closest she came to the past now was that she was awkwardly sharing a space with a spirit and a person. Both one in the same. Why couldn’t Varric have adopted the blonde elf instead? She’d seemed fun. More of a reminder of Isebella, instead of him. 

*

Cole shifted his weight from one foot to the other, eyeing the edge of the balcony like it was about to bite him. He pondered Hawkes words for a moment, picking them apart and putting them back together in his mind. 

_“Back and forth, same words, same questions except this time I’m the one expected to answer. Wish they’d give me a second to breathe.”_

Cole shrugged, continuing to wiggle about on the spot. 

“Varric is busy.” 

Cole didn’t much like the Viscounts office either. Varric outwardly seemed to enjoy and thrive in his new position, able to aid the city and its people in a way he couldn’t before. But Cole could see underneath that, feel underneath it. The job came with a level of responsibility and accountability that sat on Varric's shoulders like an ever present weight providing just enough discomfort so it could never be truly ignored. Cole had probed Varric on this a number of times, but the dwarf always assured him he was happy to shoulder the burden of it meant he could help. 

Cole noted Hawke was still watching him with half interest, she was leaning her back against the edge of the balcony wall, her arms crossed neatly across her chest. She had a single eyebrow raised, and a half smirk on her lips. Cole had always been a little unsure of the small mages often piercing blue eyes so usually elected not to look at them. He shrugged again.

“Varric is busy a lot.” 

*

Marian only snorted in response. Lowering herself down into her chair with help from her staff. Donnic, bless him, had elected to use the worlds hardest chairs for the balcony and she didn’t feel like bruising her arse quite that badly. 

She crossed her legs and wiggled to get comfortable, she eventually found the sweet spot and sighed with relief. It was then she noticed the spirit had not moved. 

“Come sit with me, people watching is more fun with company.” 

Although, maybe it wouldn’t be since she might make up a fabulous history for a stranger only to be told of the poor fool’s awful life. She wondered if Cole was even capable of having a good time, with things like that running through his brain constantly. She barely knew him and he already seemed like he was worn out, like she had been, like she was. 

But at the age he looked, since she had no clue how old the creature actually was, she remembered being relatively unburdened. Not nearly as many deaths strewn behind her, the ashes peppered the sky instead of filling it. The point being, back then she knew she hadn’t looked so depressed. 

“Actually,” she turned in her chair to face him. “I’ll show you how to watch people properly, without that creepy lark you do. That way we’ll see if you’re capable of having a good time.” 

*  
Cole eyed the available seat opposite where Hawke was sitting. He played around with the moment, reaching out to probe at the emotions coming from the mage. Exhaustion, mixed with a relative sense of calm. Cole poked at this feeling. It was soft. Mailable. Warm and pleasant, but lined with a cool slither of something harder.

_The peace feels good but it’s held back. Regret. Remorse. Guilty for feeling something underserved._

Cole picked at the shiny buttons on the edge of his sleeve. He didn’t like these ones, they had no picture. Varric chose his clothes as Cole wasn’t particularly phased about what he wore. 

It isn’t about looking.

He would pick and pull at the garments until someone, usually Varric, told him to stop. It made Varric happy to dress and feed Cole so the spirit let him. 

Marian seemed to be waiting for Cole to make some sort of movement. So the spirit readjusted his hat and blinked over to the edge of the balcony, couching on top of the low wall, peering down at the people walking down below. His eyes darted from one person to the next, picking up brief snapshots of lives being both lived and wasted. 

“Must wait till he’s out of the city before I do anything, won’t be safe otherwise.”

“Kirkwall wasn’t exactly a pretty city before, if anything it suits itself better now.” 

“Maybe the ones stopping the end of the world are the real problem, what do we need champions and heroes for anyway?” 

*

Ignoring the passing thought that Varric wouldn't enjoy the strange creature’s precarious seating choice, Marian instead mulled over his mumbled words. 

Truth be told, Hawke was a selfish woman, it ran in the family. Her selfishness boiled down to a severe lack of care on what others generally thought. Of course there were exceptions, some people unknowingly held such a sway of power over her. However, none of those people were walking the streets below. Therefore, she did not care to hear their thoughts. 

She shook her head, waving a hand in the air to dismiss the melancholy. “No, no, no, no, no sweetie. Not like that, we’re looking at them, and we’re making it up.” She rose from her spot, leaving her staff balanced against the table but still in arms reach. Leaning against the edge of the balcony closest to the spirit. 

“Me and Varric used to play this game all the time. You just, well, you just look at them! They’re weird expressions, what they’re carrying,” she pointed, jumping slightly on the spot to a particular member of the crowd. 

“He’s carrying that stupid little dog, right? Means he must be posh. But his clothes are muddy. See, I would see him and say… He’s a servant for one of the many illustrious Orlesian’s. Right? But he’s secretly seeing the lady of the house, recently they both had an argument because he wants her to run away with him. She said no, obviously, and put him on dog duty. Unluckily for him one of the little fluff balls escapes! Well, how can he show her that he’ll provide for her in a new life if he can’t even look after one little dog?” Hawke stares intensely at the spirit, the man in question has long since walked by, but she’s in the grove now. 

“So, he chases the mutt throughout Kirkwall. Through Hightown all the way to Darktown, unrelenting in his pursuit. That’s why he’s so muddy. Anyway, finally, he finds the dog, moments away from it slipping down into one of derelict cellars- almost definitely never to be seen again. Triumphant now, he walks through the streets, proud of his dirty clothes and the disgusting little rat under his arm! Maybe this act of pure, raw love will be the thing to show her how he is the one for her!” 

She finished with waving fingers and a grin, eyebrows high on her forehead. If anything, the spirit looks confused. Which is better than his near on constant expressionless stare. Sadly, it still wasn’t the reaction she’d hoped for— what did a girl have to do to get some awe. Varric would’ve loved it, her narrative, maybe she’d tell him later. 

Marian sagged, with a shrug, turning away to look down at the crowds again. “It’s fun, you know, try it maybe.” 

*

Cole looked at the mage, then down at the people in the street, then back at Hawke. He frowned, not totally understanding what she was asking of him. He could hear the thoughts of the man as he’d passed and they hadn’t been that far off the narrative that Hawke had impressively created for him. Cole could say easily what the man was actually thinking, but that didn’t seem to be the game. 

Cole wasn’t that good with games. Or jokes. He enjoyed them to no end, feeling the waves of emotion coming from the players as they won or lost or tried to trick the others. The surge of pride and pleasure as a winning hand in Wicked Grace was dealt, swallowing up the hot burn of disappointment from those it had defeated. Varric was often at his happiest when surrounded by the people he cared about all playing together. It pulled on old memories, plucking at the notes of an old well remembered song. Cole liked those moments.

The spirit shuffled on the stone, peering at the people in the street again. He wondered if Hawke was trying to play a similar song. Attempting to recall the cords of a time that brought feelings more pleasant. 

_The tavern music is too loud as usual, patrons have to shout to be heard. Someone is fighting, someone is always fighting. It’s part of the Hanged Man's charm. Surrounded by friends, it's easy to forget the rest of the world for a while._

Cole lent further over the edge of the balcony, trying to focus on an individual, pushing away the larger sway of emotions to pinpoint a singular one. His mind was drawn to a soldier, leaning against a wall in the section of the street he was supposedly guarding. He was a young man, tall with longish brown hair that was just beginning to dip in-front of his eyes. Cole pointed around the soldier and Hawke nodded, indicating it was his turn to play the game. The spirit shifted on the edge of the wall and tried to focus. 

“Stagnant and sluggish, tried, tedious, taxing. The world is slow without war, rather be out fighting something, anything.”

Cole looked over at Hawke who was still next to him on the wall, a single eyebrow quirked. The spirit frowned, and leaned over to look at the soldier again.

“He doesn’t have a dog.” 

*

Hawke looked at the spirit, really looked, and burst into laughter. She ended up cackling so hard she bent forward unable to contain the fit. Her laughter was so loud a few heads looked up at the home of the Guard-Captain quizzically. 

Eventually she settled down, standing and shaking her head. Skin reddened and nose sniffling. “You are the most bizarre man I’ve ever met. That’s an achievement all by itself.” 

Running her hand through her hair she took a glance back down at the crowd. “Don’t look in their head, right? Just look at them, I know your whole thing is to take a spooky look inside people’s heads but isn’t as fun as making something up.” Sobering slightly she sighed.

“I’m not the same as Varric, I won’t even pretend you’re just a confused kid.” Not a special case, just needs to be shown how to live a normal life- and where had that thinking got her before? At least Varric’s misgivings hadn’t yet led to a massacre. “But, I’ll put it this way. I’m a mage, I don’t need to know how to throw a punch. And yet, I learnt to do so anyway.” She looked at him expectantly, he only blinked. 

“You don’t need to guess who people are, you can just know right off the bat. However, you could learn to take a guess, make an assumption… for fun or, I don’t know, just because.” 

She looked at him, then away just as quickly. The sincerity being hidden as she watched a boy being led through the crowd by his mother’s hand. “Try to be something other than your powers, not just their byproduct.” 

*

Cole was pleased he’d made the mage laugh, even if he wasn’t sure how or why. He settled back into his haunches and studied her. There was a cool sense of sadness that lingered wherever she went. It soured the edges of her words, and made the blue of her eyes look harsher. In a lot of ways, it made her very similar to Varric, despite what she said. 

“The sadness is the same, but it hurts for other reasons. Different words to the same tune.”

He stopped himself, and pondered Hawke’s words. 

“Looking without looking. Guessing without knowing.” 

He paused again, swirling the thoughts round in his head, talking more to himself than Hawke. 

“Watching, reading, waiting. _You gotta focus on the faces kid, they always give it away.”_

He blinked at Hawke, trying to read her expression to see if he’d solved the impossible riddle she didn’t know she’d asked. He reached up and plucked the spider that had been resting on his hat and held it out in the palm of his hand for Hawke to see.

“People are afraid because they look. They watch and guess.” 

The spider clambered around on Coles hand, in and out of his fingers in a graceful little waltz. 

“But knowing means not being afraid.” 

He looked at Hawke again, proud that he’d solved the puzzle he’d been presented with. 

_“Everyone is afraid of everyone until they have a reason not to be Cole, you just got to prove you’re harmless and hope they believe it.”_

*  
“Are you harmless, Cole?” She asked, lazily looking at him from the corner of her eye. 

*  
Cole frowned at the question and shook his head.

“No.”

He looked at the spider in his palm, before blinking off the wall over towards the door where a small potted plant stood in a chipped ceramic pot. He held his hand out and encouraged the spider to wander on to the flower head before blinking back over to his original spot, this time with his legs dangling over the edge. 

“Listening out for the ones that harm, but uncertain if the reason is clear enough. Maybe it’s the fear of danger that makes us dangerous.” 

He watched the people walking below, his attention mostly fixed on the soldier again who seemed to be trying to catch the gaze of a group of women walking past.

“Are you afraid Hawke?” 

*

“Yes.” She answered simply. 

She watched a plume of smoke, rising up over dark roofs and spires until it dissipated into an even greyer sky. 

“You’re not a simpleton, you know I wouldn’t be willing to trust your intent immediately. You can see into my bloody head, so I don’t have to tell you why.” She turned and faced away from the balconies edge, her back resting against the stone. Leaning backwards so she could almost meet his eyes. 

“I want a reason to believe you’re what you say you are, and that more importantly you won’t do something to hurt Varric. Even though you've helped for this long but I knew Anders for years, and he ended up causing all of this.” She gestured behind her vaguely. 

Hawke had always been direct, and now especially didn’t see the point in beating around the bush. Especially when the other was one who had the power to see her thoughts regardless. 

“I don’t want Varric shouldered with the same guilt, Cole.” 

*  
Cole swung his legs back and forth, his eyes still on the people below. 

“I used to do the hurting, I thought it was helping breaking, burning, bleeding, I was confused I didn’t understand.” 

He pulled his legs up off the ledge, bringing his knees up to his chest. 

“Hiding in the corners, blending into the dark. Stop the pain by hastening the end. I pushed the blade in so they wouldn’t cry anymore.”

Cole’s eyes burned a whole into the floor of the street below, his arms wound tightly around his legs.

“I didn’t understand, until he told me. Didn’t know until he showed me. Then he was gone.” 

Cole began to rock back and forth, letting his mind flip back and forth. Black and white. Good and bad. Past and present. 

“He was afraid of me, then he was gone. It hurt that he was afraid. I didn’t want him to be afraid of me. Lost. Left behind. Don’t want to be alone anymore.”

Cole stopped rocking, his hands moving from his legs to press over his ears as he usually did when he got upset. 

“I didn’t want to be feared but I thought it was the only way to help. Varric showed me I was wrong. Spilt pieces being put back together. Pulling out the knots that I didn’t know where hurting. Making it easier to be.”

Cole closed his eyes, holding on to a single point of focus in his mind.

_“Take a breath Kid, just focus on the good stuff,_ I thought I had to kill him back to make it right, but Varric told me no. He said I could be a person. I need to be a person, it makes him hurt less. You can’t just make it all go away, I learned that the hard way.”

*

Getting an image of Bartrand’s body splayed across her mind’s eye had Marian sucking air through her teeth. Varric had gotten so ridiculously drunk that night it had to have been the only time she’d seen him vomit, unlike all the others (bar Fenris of course) who usually partook in a wretch at least once a week. 

That, and the ignored letters from Bianca, the unspoken words between them on what had transpired over the last decade. Yeah, Varric had learned the hard way, they all had. 

“So you’re only doing this for him? Or do you actually want to be here, and like this, with the rest of us?” 

*  
Cole took his hands from his ears, letting his legs go so they hung over these of the ledge again. He shook his head half turning his head to look at her.

“When I first came to help. I came because it hurt not to. Then I stayed because Varric reminded me of him. He reminded me of being better. Pulling me through the dark, a warm wave of good amongst the cold and fear.” 

He nodded and the corners of his mouth twitched to a small smile.

“I could go, but I like to stay. I like Aveline. I like Donnic. I like Hawke. Broken pieces from different puzzles fit together to make a new picture.” 

He began to pick and pull at the buttons on his shirt again. 

*

“You know, I think I might like you too.” She mused, a feeling resting a little more comfortable in her stomach as she slowly twisted herself around to once again be looking over the balcony. 

After a few moments of something that definitely felt like a comfortable silence. She decided to speak again, tilted her head sideways again to bring herself marginally closer to the other body on the balcony. 

“I once said hello to the ocean, but it didn’t say hello back, it just waved.” 

*

Cole swayed on the edge of the balcony, letting the warmth of Hawkes amusement wash over him, tickling at the corners of his mind. 

“I like the ocean, it plays with the boats.” 

Cole looked over at Hawke then pointed down in the street. A woman was hurrying past clutching a large brown leather bag in her hands, her blond hair flowing out behind her as she ran.

“She has been to the Chantry, she went in to pray but decided the Maker could not help her. So she helped herself. She took the candle sticks.” 

He looked over at Hawke, a small smile on his face again.

“Or maybe she has a dog rat.” 

*

Hawke laughed again, noting the kid was quite sweet when he smiled. It was a little thing, like Merrill’s, like it was scared of itself.

“Maybe she wants a dog rat, but couldn’t afford it, so she’s stealing the candle sticks to sell to a puppy dealer or something. A mad puppy dealer, hellbent on making new types of small, utterly evil yapping dog rats.” 

*  
Cole's eyes went wide at the prospect, he stood up quickly and jumped down from the edge of the balcony.

“Do you think Aveline will get a dog rat?”

Cole seemed rather excited at the prospect, forgetting that it had been part of a game, now fully intending on convincing Aveline to adopt a dog. Conveniently forgetting the incident with the nugs.

*

“Aveline with a pet? Ooooh noo, never. She wouldn’t even let my dog in the barracks.” Saying it out loud, Hawke suddenly realised after all these years why that might’ve been a weird ask. Ah well, at the time it made perfect sense, her Mabari had been part of the team. 

“I reckon if you asked Varric though, he might consider the idea. Provided it isn’t actually a rat dog. Maybe something a little less high pitched and annoying.” 

In her mind, Varric would do a little more than consider it. It was likely if the spirit actually seemed to express a want for something, Varric would be up for getting whatever it was in a heartbeat. Maybe it would be good for the both of them, her dog always used to bring Marian comfort after a stressful day- and what was more stressful than being a Viscount? Plus maybe having a dog would give the spirit something other to do than stalk the inside of people’s skulls. 

And, she thought with a mild shiver, a dog was indeed the opposite of a cat. 

“I’d ask him, when he isn’t busy, hell, if he says yes I’ll come with you to get one.” 

*

Cole began to hop about the balcony as if the ground was too hot to stand on. Varric had once told him that when he was doing business up in the office, Cole was only supposed to disturb him if it was an emergency. This request had come after more than one incident of Cole appearing on his desk mid meeting or hanging from a light fixture and usually frightening everyone in the vicinity out of their wits. Cole wasn’t sure if this counted as an emergency. 

There was a small clatter as the button he’d been twisting on his shirt finally gave up and went skittering across the balcony before flying off the edge. It dropped quickly through the air then landed squarely in the centre of the top of the young soldiers head. 

The man yelped in surprise more than pain and looked up with a stern expression. Cole’s eyes went wide and he promptly vanished. 

*

Hawke twitched at the boy’s abrupt exit, a small inhale of surprise became a chuckling exhale. She looked over the balcony, locking eyes with the soldier. The smile Hawke tried to suppress broke out in under a second, and with a chuckle the champion gave the lad a small wave.

“You can keep it, for what it’s worth.” 

.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.

Epilogue 

Varric yawned and stretched his arms up, clicking several bones as he did so. A rather audible reminder he wasn’t as young as he used to be. He reached out and shuffled the papers on the desk in front of him into some sort of pile to return to later. He’d been in his office all day and he was desperate to go home. The weather was humid and the latch of the window was currently stuck, leaving the room without any air. He pushed himself away from the desk and stood, readjusting his collar and picking up his jacket from where he’d dropped it on the floor earlier. 

The dwarf began to make his way towards the door, trying to decide between going straight home for a bath or dropping by the hanged man for something to eat. He wondered what Cole had spent his day doing. Cole found various things to occupy his time from speaking to the horses in the city stables, to just watching the boats in the docks. Varric was satisfied so long as he didn’t have guards at his door asking him to keep Cole from the Blooming Rose before he convinced all the working girls and guys to pursue their life’s true goals or whatever it was he told them. 

Whatever the kid had done with his time, he was usually waiting outside the front door of the building for when Varric finished his work so when the dwarf swung open his study door and walked smack into the spirit it took him by more than just a little surprise.  
The force of the impact was enough to make Varric stumble backwards, nearly dropping his jacket. He raised an eyebrow at Cole who was still standing in the doorway, wiggling on the spot like he needed the bathroom. 

“Cole are you.. Is everything okay?”

Cole continued to bounce without leaving the ground, his pale blue eyes seeming to glitter with what Varric could only describe as excitement. 

“I would like to get a dog ra- pet.” 

Varric's eyebrows shot up. He stared at the boy for a moment, then burst out laughing. 

“I’m sorry, you want a what now?” 

“A dog.”

“You want a dog?”

“Yes.”

“Like a puppy, a pet dog?”

“Yes.”

“….. okay why?”

Varric had never seen Cole this worked up over something so… well Varric didn’t know how to describe it. The level of anticipation coming from the kid was almost cute. Cole shook his head and shrugged.

“The woman had the candlesticks to get a dog and Aveline won’t have one.” 

Varric opened and closed his mouth, not quite sure what to make of that. Cole shook his head again.

“Hawke said she would help me choose one.”

Varric grinned and rolled his eyes.

“Oh she did, did she?” 

He ran a hand through his hair and chuckled. 

“Of course she’s behind this, been spending the day with her then have you?” 

“She showed me how to look at people without looking.”

“People watching huh? Yeah, she was always good at making up that shit.”

“It was fun.”

Varric smiled, a sincere warm smile. 

“I’m pleased you two get on, would crush me if you didn’t.” 

He put his hand on Cole’s side and began to lead him out of the building. 

“So a dog huh?”

“Yes.”

“And Hawke said she’d help get you one?”

“Yes.”

“Well… we better go find Hawke then, seeing as she’s so graciously volunteered.”

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are welcome, like i said, throw some Multiduels way, her back probably hurts from carrying the weight of this fic. lol. nah, im pleased with my marian in this one too, poor woman, someone give her a milktray. i did try to proofread this, but also, to err is human and i've probably missed some shit. so there might be edits in the future. watch this space.


End file.
